


North Comforts a Child

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, past animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 15:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18263816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original prompt: "I have a prompt, but if it's too sad, forgive me for giving it. But I would like to see North talking to a child who is asking for their pet who died back for Christmas."(I hope I did even a little bit of justice to this prompt.)





	North Comforts a Child

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 12/7/2014.

Belief is a heady thing, North discovers. With more believers every year, his power increases, and the more and more he’s able to do, the more and more the children think he can do, and over the year they grow to be right, and so onward and upward.

            But it can’t go on forever.

 

            The letter makes only one request, but it brings to a halt all North’s thoughts of toy designs, the modifications that will be needed in the Workshop this year, and all of the details of being Santa Claus, and throws him back to only himself. He cannot do this. He will never be able to do this. He feels it in his bones, in his belly.

            He does not like saying something is impossible, but he will not give silence, either, not when this is the only request.

            In the corner of the girl’s room, there’s an old pillow with a depression still in its center.

            “Hannah,” he says, just loudly enough to wake her.

            Her eyes open wide as soon as she sees him, but she recognizes him, too, and so she’s not afraid. “But it’s not Christmas yet,” she says quietly. The hope in her eyes is enough to hurt and North nods.

            “Is not Christmas, but I got your letter,” North says. “Wanted to talk to you about it.”

            “Do you need a picture of Maple?” she asks. “I only have a drawing, but I think you can see most of her pattern in it. I can go get it.” She moves to throw off her covers, but North tucks her back in.

            “Hannah,” North says, and he hates the wounds that will come with these words, “I cannot bring Maple back.”

            “Can’t? But…” Hannah frowns, and North expects himself to wink out of her vision, but he doesn’t even flicker. He feels he should have done at least that.

            Hannah doesn’t say anything more right away, and North takes a deep breath. He’s not sure if he’ll be saying the right thing. His powers won’t be backing him up here, only who he is. And he’s not sure if he was ever good at comforting before he became a Guardian. “Maple was not like one of your toys, yes?” he begins, and Hannah tilts her head. “What I am saying, is, your dolls and stuffed animals act just as you make them do. But Maple did not always do what you wanted, and sometimes did things you did not understand.”

            Hannah nods. “She would leave dead mice in my shoes sometimes, and the first time, I screamed, but Papa said, that if she didn’t do that, she wouldn’t be a cat. But I—I think she would do that because she loved me, because she would wind around my legs until I found them, and she would purr when I did, and she would also purr when I let her into my bed, and she knew that she had to be on her pillow when Papa or Mama checked on me and,” Hannah hugged her knees to her chest, “can’t you bring her back?”

            North shook his head. “I could only bring you a toy, and the toy could only do what you expected and wanted. Maple was herself, yes? She lived her whole life. Do you think that when you are old, and the people that love you want you to stay with them, that you would be able to start over young again and be the same?”

            “I never thought about it,” says Hannah. “But…I miss her,” she says. “Mama says we could get a new cat, but I don’t want a new cat. That would be like forgetting Maple.”

            “Making new friends does not mean forgetting old ones,” North says. “But, to always remember Maple—I have a friend who can help make sure of that.”

            “Really?”

            “Yes, to remember every detail, all your life,” North says, and Hannah looks a little brighter.

            “But I still miss her,” she says.

            “And that is all right.” North pats her hand. “I am very old. I miss many reindeer.” He knows enough not to mention the people, now. “But missing like this means that who you miss was unique. And is that not a good thing for our friends? The reasons we want them back are the reasons they cannot be brought back again. It hurts, now, but again, is all right. When a wonderful friend is lost, it makes sense for it to hurt. But if there was such wonder before, there will be wonder again. And the chance to love something wonderful, will be always worth the hurt, I think.”


End file.
